Tomasz Tomaszewski

The prize-winning photographer and pedagogue has been a correspondent for National Geographic magazine since 1986, serving as head consultant to the Polish edition since 1999. He has traveled the world collecting stories and secrets through pictures, with a sincere look at the less glamorous corners of life.

Born in 1953 in Warsaw, today he is a lecturer at the city's Academy of Fine Arts, as well as a visiting lecturer at other arts academies in Poland, Germany, U.S.A. and Italy. He is represented by the Visum agnecy in Hamburg, Image Collection in Washington and the American Society of Magazine Photographers. His photographs have been shown in the U.S.A., Canada, Japan, Germany, Israel and Holland, published in photography albums and in The New York Times, Time, Paris Match, Vogue, Die zeit and Elle. He has received a number of international prizes, including Poland's Gloria Artis award and is a member of the jury of the World Press Photo competition. He established himself as a photographer in the 1980s with a photo essay published in National Geographic, titled The Last of Them. Today's Polish Jews (Ostatni. Współcześni Żydzi polscy). His images, and the accompanying article by Ma?gorzata Niezabitowska, spurred a huge amount of interest, with some 12,000 letters flooding the magazine's editorial office.

His photographs continued to spark interest and debate, such as Gypsies. Other People, Same as Us (Cyganie. Inni ludzie, tacy sami jak my), which documented the life of the Roma in Europe in the mid-1990s. He first had to win the trust of his subjects to gain entry into their world, a world which had not previously been seen by outsiders, and was careful not to commit any faux pas that would suddenly shut off his access to this private people. He spent 10 days in each one of 11 countries, preparing himself thoroughly for what he could expect to find and capture with his lens. The result is a rich series of intimate portraits of family life, everyday existence and celebration. As Tomaszewski says, "I capture the world in the most interesting moments. And this is what fascinates me".